


Gratitude

by jane_x80



Category: NCIS
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Episode: s02e13 The Meat Puzzle, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-18 11:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21943501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_x80/pseuds/jane_x80
Summary: Even though the MCRT tends to work through the holidays, Ducky invites the MCRT, Abby and Jimmy to have a small Christmas dinner and gathering at his home, with his mother who suffers from dementia. There they find a mystery gift under Ducky's Christmas tree.ForDay 24 of the 2019 Happy Holidays Challenge on LiveJournal, the theme is Gifts/Gift Exchange. A story in collaboration with Red_Pink_Dots and her fabulous artwork.
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo/Jethro Gibbs, Implied Anthony DiNozzo/Jethro Gibbs
Comments: 41
Kudos: 207





	Gratitude

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Art for Gratitude](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21922486) by [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots). 



> This story is actually a completely last minute one that ma cherie [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots) and I started talking about only a few days ago. RPD sent me a few pictures and one of them inspired this story. Check out the amazing artwork that RPD made, based on the artwork that stuck with the muse! Here is her [artwork post](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21922486).
> 
> The song that I listened to for this one is [Kind and Generous](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAwyIad93-c) by Natalie Merchant. The title of the story is a word from the lyrics of the song.

[](https://i.imgur.com/u8b1REb.png)

It was Kate’s second Christmas working for NCIS, but not only was she still too new at the agency to have a chance at time off during the coveted holidays, but as she learned, Gibbs was one of those people for whom holidays didn’t seem to matter. Thanksgiving? Christmas? They were barely acknowledged. What was important to Gibbs was: did they have a case, and how urgent was the case, holidays be damned.

So Kate knew that again, she wasn’t going to be able to make it home to Indiana for Christmas. She had already told her mother, and that conversation, with her mother’s palpable disappointment at this turn of events, and the fact that she believed that working for NCIS was a step down for Kate, given that her previous assignment was to protect the president didn’t help. Kate had had more seniority with the Secret Service and could perhaps have afforded a bit of time off to visit with her parents during the holidays. But given that she’d only been with NCIS a little over a year, there was no way she would be able to swing getting the days off needed when a slew of people who had been at NCIS far longer than she would have priority over her.

In a way, though, it was a comfort. Because at the end of it, Kate honestly didn’t relish going home to Indiana and listening to her mother question her life choices, her career change (not that Kate had told her that she left the Secret Service before they could fire her for sleeping with a co-worker), and every decision that could have ever been made. Nothing Kate did ever compared to what Rachel, her elder sister, did. Rachel was perfect. Kate was the opposite. That was how it had always been with their mother. So it wasn’t really a bad thing that Kate wouldn’t be able to make it home. But some time off to relax would have been nice.

But then Ducky had invited the whole team, including Abby and Jimmy Palmer to his house for a small gathering and that made her happy. At least _someone_ at NCIS was acknowledging the holidays. It felt to Kate sometimes that family wasn’t really the priority for her teammates. Tony was estranged from his father and his mother was dead. McGee didn’t have a good relationship with his father. Abby was close to her parents, but she tended to spend Christmas in DC and chose instead to go home for Mardi Gras – which Kate did kind of get. If she was from New Orleans, she would probably prefer to go home for Mardi Gras, too. Plus it was easier to get time off then rather than at Christmas. She knew nothing about Jimmy Palmer except that he was terribly awkward. And Gibbs was someone that probably sprang from a mushroom in a fairy circle. Kate couldn’t imagine Gibbs having parents or siblings, or that he would have ever been a child. Nothing quite so mundane for Gibbs. The slew of mysterious redheads that came and went was the stuff that Tony and Abby gossiped about, so she figured that family wasn’t really Gibbs’ thing either.

Kate, of course, had both of her parents, three brothers and a sister, and a huge extended family, so family had always been a big thing for her. It was kind of depressing to just go home alone and drink store bought eggnog while listening to Christmas carols. That wasn’t really what Christmas was to her. So just the thought of this little gathering definitely cheered her up.

Luckily, all was quiet on Christmas. Even though they had to work, no bodies dropped, and nobody uncovered a lead on the cold cases that they were working on. Tony brought hot chocolate in for everyone, Gibbs included, and he only gave Gibbs a saucy wink when Gibbs complained about it not being coffee. Gibbs had to have been in a good mood because he didn’t dole out one of his infamous head slaps, even though Tony’s behavior should have resulted in one. And for once, McGee didn’t get glued to anything, nor was there salt or something else vile in the drink that Tony had brought him.

Finally, after work, they all left and drove to Ducky’s. Kate noted idly that Tony had opted to ride with Gibbs instead of driving himself. Maybe he was planning on drinking and Gibbs was his designated driver? Kate didn’t really know, since normally Gibbs didn’t go out with them if they went out to dinner or lunch or whatever.

She was very happy, though, to ring the doorbell and have Ducky welcome her at the door. The interior of the house had been decorated, everything was quite festive and Christmas lights adorned every window. In the living room was a Christmas tree that had been decorated and strewn with lights. Kate saw that Gibbs was sipping a drink, and Tony was indulging in Mrs Mallard, cheerfully moving chairs and a small table around even though it looked quite aimless, and blushing when she pinched his ass and called him her Italian gigolo.

Abby came over and giggled with Kate about how Mrs Mallard kept calling Tony her Italian furniture moving gigolo, before she led Kate to the table and ladled out some eggnog for her. There was a spread of delicious looking finger foods laid out, and everyone was helping themselves to the food.

Tony disappeared for a while and when he came back, he brought with him an enormous bowl of caramel corn.

“Did you make this yourself, Tony?” Kate had to tease him. “You probably just brought a big bag of it from the store.”

“I’ll have you know that this is a DiNozzo family recipe,” Tony told her haughtily. “We made this every Christmas when my mother was alive.”

Kate stopped herself from expressing her disbelief because even she wasn’t going to knock someone’s dead mother. Even Tony’s. Maybe she had been too harsh at judging Tony’s family issues, since he did always treat Abby like a sister and Ducky like a surrogate father. And given that Kate had three brothers of her own, she did realize that Tony treated McGee like an annoying pest of a little brother – and technically, so did she – and Tony did mostly treat her like a sister as well. So maybe even though Tony’s real family wasn’t much to speak of, Tony himself did know how to be a good family member. He even let Ducky’s mother call him a gigolo and pinch his ass, even back during their meat puzzle days.

Abby reached into the bowl and grabbed a handful, moaning with happiness. “It’s always so good, Tony,” she grinned at him.

Tony’s green eyes twinkled and he took Abby’s praise with aplomb. He went around handing caramel corn to everyone, even sitting and talking to Mrs Mallard and petting her corgis while she ate a handful of the tasty popcorn.

Afterwards, Ducky came out with a bagful of gaily wrapped boxes which he passed out to everyone.

“I thought we weren’t doing gifts?” Kate asked. Because that had absolutely been what Ducky had told everyone. To just bring themselves and enjoy a quiet gathering.

“Of course we’re not doing gifts,” Abby smiled at her, as she pulled out a bagful of what looked to be more gaily wrapped boxes out from behind one of the couches.

“Nobody’s doing presents, Kate,” Tony added as he walked through the doorway, a sack over his shoulder.

As it turned out, Ducky, Abby and Tony had all had the same idea regarding ‘no presents’ and they laughed at each other as they handed out presents from each of their bags. The next half hour was a flurry of everyone sitting around, tearing open their gifts and showing off what they received.

“For me?” Mrs Mallard batted her eyelashes at Tony when he handed her a small box.

“Of course, Mrs Mallard,” he smiled sweetly, and Kate thought, really, Tony could be so sweet if he wasn’t trying to be smarmy.

The elderly woman carefully unwrapped the gift and opened the box, and gasped. Inside was an incredibly realistic ceramic figurine of a corgi. “Oh, how exquisite!” she exclaimed, picking it up and showing it to everyone to murmurs of agreement. “Thank you, Antonio,” she turned back to Tony. “This is lovely. Are you sure you can afford it? I don’t know if I should accept this!”

“My… patrons are always satisfied. They’re generous and tip very well, Mrs Mallard,” Tony assured her, playing into her idea that he was a male prostitute. “Don’t worry about me…” he broke off yelping when Mrs Mallard pulled him close and kissed him right on the lips.

“You are dear, dear, boy, Antonio,” she sighed. “I have never met a nicer Italian gigolo.”

“I’ll wager that’s true,” Gibbs muttered, and Abby giggled at that.

Tony made his escape quickly after that, but Victoria Mallard was very pleased with the figurine, insisting on placing it on the mantle.

Once the gifts were opened and they converged around the dinner table to eat a lovely Christmas dinner together, it was almost time to leave. Mrs Mallard was getting worse as the evening progressed, not even recognizing Ducky at this point. Kate could see how much that was hurting poor Ducky, and she could see how Tony began distracting the elderly lady and putting her attention on him and his gigolo ass whenever Mrs Mallard started asking where her son Donald was, and refusing to believe Ducky was who he said he was. Ducky talked about how it was true for dementia, that the symptoms were worse in the evenings than in the mornings. After they ate, he took her upstairs to her room and settled her in, while the team relaxed with their final drinks.

Gibbs was on the couch with Tony next to him and Abby crushing them together. Tony’s eyes were bright and his smile probably the most genuine that Kate had ever seen. Abby was squashing Tony right into Gibbs, and for once, Gibbs wasn’t frowning. He had his arm around Tony and the little quirk of his lips made it clear that he was in no way bothered by what was going on, and was perhaps even happy about it. When Abby got up, Kate noted idly that Gibbs kept his arm around Tony, and her Senior Field Agent was maybe snuggling up with their team lead, head on his shoulder, and looking up at him with what looked to be hearts in his eyes.

Tony had to be really drunk, Kate shook her head, barely suppressing a snort. Gibbs was so going to make him regret snuggling up with him. But before anything could happen, Kate turned her head to where Jimmy was.

“Hey!” Jimmy said. “There’s one more gift!”

And sure enough, there was another gaily wrapped box under the Christmas tree, looking all sad and lonely.

“I gave out all my gifts,” Tony claimed.

“Me too,” Abby agreed.

Ducky came into the room and they showed him what they had discovered, and Ducky claimed that the present wasn’t from him, either.

“Maybe we should open it?” Tony suggested.

Jimmy was gently shaking it.

“It wouldn’t be an explosive device, would it?” Abby asked, eyes wide.

Jimmy squeaked and dropped it like a rock.

“Well if it was, we’d have blown up after that,” Gibbs grumbled.

Tony laughed. “It’s just a mystery gift,” he rolled his eyes, bending to pick it up and handing it back to Jimmy. “It’s not a bomb. But you should definitely be the one to open it, Jimbo.”

Jimmy fumbled the box again, but Tony caught it and gave it to him, ensuring that he had firm hold of it this time.

“Should I…?” Jimmy’s eyes were wide behind his glasses, and he looked to Ducky for permission.

“Of course, dear boy,” Ducky gave him a gentle smile. “I agree with Jethro, if it was some kind of explosive device, dropping it would have probably set it off. So do, please open this mystery gift.”

Jimmy sighed and spluttered a little more before he began carefully peeling off the wrapping paper, starting at one of the taped seams. Tony and Abby were looking over his shoulder. He finally got the seam loose and pulled the paper aside.

“ _Boooooom_!!!” Tony made a mock explosion noise, surprising everyone.

Jimmy shrieked, jumped and dropped the box again, and Tony cackled as he bent to pick it up and hand it back to Ducky’s poor, beleaguered assistant.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I really am,” Tony chuckled, thumping Jimmy’s back. “I couldn’t resist.”

“You’re an idiot,” Kate rolled her eyes at Tony’s antics. “Hopefully whatever’s in there isn’t fragile.”

“It’s a little too late for that now,” Abby shrugged, although she was smiling wide, amused by what Tony had done.

Abby and Tony were practically hanging onto Jimmy, peering over his shoulders, as he unwrapped this final gift, and Tony was staring at it in amazement.

“What is it?” Ducky asked.

Jimmy turned the box to show them. It was a toy medical kit.

“What on earth…?” Ducky went to them to examine the box. “Are you sure that neither of you brought this?” Ducky directed his question to Tony and Abby.

Both of them shook their heads, and even Kate believed them. They had both looked surprised at what the box contained. Besides, Abby had given them funny little gifts, and Tony’s had been surprisingly thoughtful. Why would either of them have brought a toy medical kit and left it under Ducky’s tree?

“Maybe it was supposed to go to a toy drive?” Tony suggested, examining the wrapping paper to see if he could find a card or a label of some sort.

“That is for Donald,” Victoria Mallard’s voice made everyone jump. Her white hair was in a long, loose braid, and she had on her nightgown and robe.

“Mother, you are supposed to be asleep,” Ducky admonished her gently.

“My son Donald wants to be a doctor when he grows up,” Victoria continued. “I only want to encourage him. He deserves to grow up to be whatever he wants to be.”

“Awww,” Abby’s eyes filled with tears.

Ducky stood there, stunned at what his mother was saying.

“Donald will love his gift when he opens it and I know he’s going to be a wonderful doctor,” Tony agreed, his tone ever so gentle. “Let me escort you back to your bedroom, Mrs Mallard.”

“Oh, you _are_ a naughty boy,” Victoria tittered as she took Tony’s arm.

“No funny stuff, OK? You have to promise me,” Tony warned her.

Kate heard Tony yelp in the other room, a surefire sign that Victoria had groped or pinched Tony again, and Abby started to giggle.

“She sure likes to pinch Tony’s ass,” Abby grinned. “It’s cause of the bubble butt.”

“His fault for being such a charmer,” Gibbs rolled his eyes. “Duck, you OK?”

Ducky was clutching the gift to his chest and he smiled at the room. “Yes, Jethro,” his eyes were wet with tears. “I am quite fine.”

Abby pulled him into a long hug. “She’s still in there, Ducky,” she whispered softly. “She’s still in there and she loves you.”

Ducky nodded wordlessly, gratefully accepting the hug. A few minutes later, Tony came back, still rubbing his ass.

“Your mother has some strong fingers,” he complained.

Ducky laughed at that.

“We should get out of your hair,” Gibbs announced.

They all began collecting their things, and one by one they hugged Ducky and thanked him for inviting them to share Christmas with him and his mother. Ducky hugged them all back hard, and Kate noticed that he had a long whispered conversation with Tony, who was blushing but smiling shyly at whatever was being said to him. Kate had to begrudgingly admit to herself that Tony had been incredibly kind to Mrs Mallard, and had definitely done his best to minimize any unintentionally hurtful words she might have said to Ducky that evening.

As they were leaving, Abby pointed out the mistletoe that was hanging over the entryway by the front door. Jimmy was standing with Abby so she loudly smacked a kiss on Jimmy’s cheek, leaving a perfect mark of black lips on the man’s crimson face. Kate grinned as she kissed McGee’s cheek, making the junior agent blush profusely and begin stuttering. Gibbs was helping Tony get his coat on and Kate started giggling. Tony was going to have to kiss Gibbs if they wanted to leave together.

“Oh for crying out loud,” Gibbs grumbled. He pulled Tony under the mistletoe and kissed him smack on the lips without warning.

Tony made a muffled sound of protest but then things changed. Tony melted into Gibbs’ embrace and Gibbs gentled the kiss. He started sucking on Tony’s lips, and Tony made a whole different sound then, one that Kate would have to describe as a moan. And when he did, Gibbs pulled away, smirking.

Tony blinked at him for a moment.

“Just get in the car, DiNozzo,” Gibbs told him.

Tony shook himself, rolled his eyes, and glared at Abby and Kate. “You guys suck,” he told them. “You too, Boss,” he pointed to Gibbs.

“Only if you ask nicely,” Gibbs retorted.

Tony rolled his eyes again, but he was smiling as they all said goodbye to each other. Kate was ready to put it all out of her head – why would Tony moan when Gibbs kissed him? She had to have heard it wrong. But as she was backing out of the driveway, she saw that Gibbs and Tony were in Gibbs’ car, in what looked to be another clinch. Were they kissing again?

More mistletoe? Kate wondered. In the car? That was ridiculous.

She rolled her eyes. Tony had to have something up his sleeve. No matter. Gibbs was going to slap him so hard that he was going to get a concussion from it if he wasn’t careful. And as she drove away, she kept her eyes on the rearview mirror. Gibbs still hadn’t started the car, and from what she could see of their silhouettes, they still hadn’t separated.

She growled to herself. Whatever Tony was up to, she was not going to fall for this prank. She put it out of her head and drove herself home, smiling to herself at the touching moment when Ducky realized that his mother hadn’t forgotten him after all.

**Author's Note:**

> That is it! This is the final collaboration of story and artwork for RPD and myself for this holiday challenge and also for 2019. I hope you enjoyed the fruits of our labor as much as we enjoyed making them. The partnership that I have with RPD is one that I cherish, and I hope will continue for many years. I know that our friendship will endure no matter what.
> 
> Seriously, you guys, without RPD there would probably be zero holiday stories from me. No joke. She's helped in so many ways, by just being a wonderful friend during a trying time, and by never putting any pressure on me. Thank you, my partner in crime, you will always be my Elton! You are the best and I always have the best time when we collaborate. Merci beaucoup. Je t'aime!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
> 
> Also thank you to all of you who have read and reacted (commented, kudo-ed, bookmarked, etc) my stories this year. Y'all are the best fandom ever, and I'm grateful that ao3 exists and enabled me to make new friends and find a supportive and accepting place to belong to. And for those of you I have grown close to, thanks also for the emails, DMs, private messages and whatnot. You've all been a wonderful support system for me. I hope that I have been half as good a friend to you as you all have been to me ❤️
> 
> Big thanks go out to Jacie for organizing this Holiday Challenge! Thank you for all your efforts! And also for organizing the NCIS Secret Santa.
> 
> Don't forget to check out the 2019 SeSa stories that will be published tomorrow! See if you can guess which one I wrote. 😁
> 
> Happy holidays to you and yours ❤️❤️  
> -j  
> xoxo


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